John Mooney Biography

John Mooney has had a very successful career with Ireland. He was part of the historic moment in Irish cricket, part of the team that played the very first match after being granted One-Day International (ODI) status. The match was played against England and Mooney made a solid impression picking three crucial wickets of Marcus Trescothick, Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell.

Despite his effort, Ireland lost the match by 38 runs. But later, once again he put on a display of great bowling against the same opposition during the ICC World Cup 2011, where he picked four wickets. He also scored a crucial 30-ball 33, hitting the winning runs in a major upset.

He is a bowling all-rounder and bowls off-cutters that even the best of batsmen have found difficult to negotiate. With the bat he is capable of significant contributions lower down the order.

Mooney's personal life, however, hasn't been as smooth as his cricketing career. In April 2013, he was handed a three-match suspension by the Ireland Cricket Board following an insensitive tweet he made in regards to the death of Margaret Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister. His tweet read, "I hope it was slow and painful."

In the February of 2014, he pulled out of Ireland's tour of West Indies owing to a stress-related illness. In September 2013, he revealed the extent of his depression in an interview and claimed that he was driven to the point of contemplating suicide.

But he fought back hard, and a day after the interview he scored a 96 against Scotland at Malahide, missing out on a maiden ODI ton but importantly for Ireland he was back and raring to go.

Mooney's achievements in cricket were acknowledged in the year 2010 as he was awarded "Ireland Player of the year." In the same year, Mooney was also awarded a full-time contract with Ireland Cricket. He was selected in the Ireland squad for the ICC World Cup 2015, his third consecutive appearance at the mega-event.